


All Roads Lead Home

by MessyWitch



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Angry Dick Grayson, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Batman - Freeform, Bruce Wayne - Freeform, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Damian Wayne - Freeform, Dick Grayson - Freeform, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Hurt Bruce Wayne, Nightwing - Freeform, Red Hood - Freeform, Red Robin, batfam, someone needs to take me away from myself because i'm hurting myself writing this, this is gonna hurt, tim drake - Freeform, you want angst? well, you want the bat boys being siblings and taking care of each other - welcome friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-05-02 01:31:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19189180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MessyWitch/pseuds/MessyWitch
Summary: Dick Grayson worries about his family, so he goes home.Everything is as normal, well, as normal for them as it gets, until something out of the ordinary, but so incredibly tragically normal happensInspired by the last prompt in this post: https://batfamscreaming.tumblr.com/post/161720791410/could-you-suggest-some-batfam-prompts-youd-like(This is going to be updated hopefully regularly)





	1. Distraction

A pit of dread had been stuck in Dick’s stomach for almost a week now.  
Everyone on his team had noticed. So much so that Wally had told him to go home in the middle of a mission, calling him an overprotective hen. Dick had tried to protest, but Cyborg had joined them for the night and it was a cakewalk anyway, routine, they could handle it without him. So, after checking and triple checking they absolutely could handle it without him, Cyborg opened a boom tube to his apartment and both he and Wally practically pushed him through it. That was about 11 pm.  
Wally called him at about 2 am to let him know they’d wrapped up, and that they were all heading home safely when he knocked on the apartment door, still in his Flash uniform.

“You okay, Dick?” Wally asked, watching his best friend pace the length of the apartment and bad.  
“Yes. No. I don’t… I just… it feels like there’s a stone in my stomach and I can’t work out what’s causing it. It feels like something is coming, something’s wrong, but I don’t know what.” Dick ran a hand through his hair and paced again.  
“Go home, Dick.” That had stopped him pacing.  
“I am at home.”  
“No, Gotham. The manor. Bruce, Damian, Jason, Tim, Barbara. Gotham. Go home.” Wally repeated. “You only get that feeling when you think that something is wrong or is going to happen to your family, D. Go home. Even if it’s just for a few days.”  
“But the team…”  
“Will be fine. We’ve run missions without you all the time, and besides, you haven’t visited them in a few weeks. That’s probably just it.”  
“Maybe.” Dick paused, hands resting against the back of his couch.  
“Go home, Dick.” Wally’s hand was on his shoulder now, and Dick didn’t protest that time. They shared a quick hug before Wally swept out the door, a packet of crisps in his hand and a shouted ‘Thank you’ as the door slammed behind him. Despite his anxiousness, Dick felt a little better after that.  
It was almost 3 am when he pulled up into the drive of the manor, imposing and impressive as always, especially in the storm that had been brewing for the last day and a bit. Steering his bike into the garage, Dick grabbed his pack with his costume and spare shirts and a few other bits and pieces from the pannier and took the steps three at a time and headed for the batcave.  
Damian was the first person he crossed paths with. Dick ignored his confused look and walked right up for him, checked him over for injuries, and then enveloped the kid in a bear hug for a good minute. 

“Grayson, are you alright?” Damian asked. He hadn’t resisted the hug and had leant into it, but he was thrown off guard by it, especially after having his defences up all night as Robin. Seeing Dick in his regular clothes at 3 am in the morning after a patrol was not something that he had expected.  
“I… just wanted to see everyone. Take some time away from Bludhaven for a few days.” Dick said, rocking back onto the balls of his feet and standing. He ran a hand through his hair again, knowing that the lie wasn’t convincing and avoiding the analysing gaze from his youngest brother.  
“Tt. Come spar with me?” Damian asked, not disputing the lie. He was a little bit glad to see Dick, the manor had had a gloomy feeling to it for the last few days. Dick didn’t protest the invitation and was glad that he’d packed his suit. Even though it was extremely late, he didn’t tell Damian to go to bed either, it was a weekend and he didn’t know what he would have done if he’d gone down into the cave by himself to wait for Bruce and Tim. 

“You’re sloppy,” Damian said, a slight teasing edge to his voice. They had been sparring for twenty minutes and no one else had returned yet.  
“Ha. I’m distracted.” Dick said, launching himself forward to let loose a fresh round of precise attacks.  
“Why,” Damian replied, not asking.  
“Where’s Bruce? Tim? Selina?” Dick said, flipping backwards to avoid a couple of hits.  
“Father took Drake out on a hunch, wanted to investigate something or another downtown. I haven’t seen Selina in a few days. Business trip to Europe.”  
“And Jason? Babs? The others? Are they around?”  
“All on patrol.” Damian huffed a breath and dove under Dick’s legs and kicked out. Dick barely leapt out of the way in time. “Todd turned up yesterday, said something about tracking some guys. Barbara took the night off, movie night with the commisioner.” Dick didn’t respond, so Damian let out a quick, nastly set of attacks and then stopped, and sat down at the edge of the raised platform they were on and let his legs dangle over the edge. “Why are you really here?” He asked. His eyes had been watching Dick, analysing him ever since he’d arrived. Dick sighed and sat down next him and looked around the cave. Massaging his shoulder, he wondered when the others would get back.  
“Would you believe me if I said I just wanted to see you guys?”  
“No.” Dick raised an eyebrow at Damian. “It is nice to see you though, but there’s always a reason for you to come here.”  
“I’m… just worried.” Dick started, and then sighed and put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands and just started talking. How anxious he felt, Wally, telling him to come home, how this was a similar feeling to when the Joker got to Jason and Barbara, when someone got to Damian and when Bruce disappeared. They were quiet for a while afterwards. Then Damian leant into Dick and yawned.  
“I believe that you came just to see us.” He said, eyes drooping when quick footsteps echoed into the cave. The pair of them sat bolt upright. Tim’s slender frame came shooting out of one of the access tunnels, his cape streaming out behind him as he crashed into his chair in front of the monitors. 

“Hey Dick, Damian.” He called, fingers frantically flying over the keys before freezing, hovering above the ‘f’ key for a few seconds. “Dick? What the hell are you doing here?” He turned slowly, a confused but not unwelcome look on his face.  
“Just thought I’d drop by for a few days.” Dick swung himself down to the level Tim was on and walked over to him, looping his arm over his second youngest brothers shoulders. Tim poked him in the ribs, before giving him a squeeze and then ducking out from under him to continue issuing commands into the computer.  
“Uh huh. And you just so happened to arrive at 4 am. Wearing your Nightwing suit. After a Titans mission that Cyborg and West kicked you off.”  
“How did you…?” Dick shook his head.  
“Wally told me. Plus I’ve got motion sensors hooked up to the cave. Bruce knows you’re here too, by the way, and I told Jason on my way back. He just rolled his eyes but said he’d come by later.”  
“Grayson is worried about us,” Damian said, appearing out of nowhere next to Dick. Tim finished entering his commands and then really frowned at Dick this time.  
“What kind of worry.” Again, did no one in this family actually ask questions?  
“Niether of you would believe me if I said I just wanted to see my family because we’re all people who literally jump off buildings, night after night, right?”  
“No.” Damian.  
“Not a chance.” Bruce.  
“Nope.” Tim. It took them all a second to realise Bruce had arrived. 

“You and Damian could be wraiths you’re so quiet,” Tim said, even though he’d noticed the black cape flickering as their father entered the cave. Bruce only smirked, cowl pushed back off his face, and walked up to Dick and put a hand on his shoulder. Dick sagged and wrapped his arms around Bruce. It was a rare thing, for the two of them to hug, rare for all of them, really. Dick was always the one to initiate them, but this was different, needing, almost desperate to hold onto his family and know that they were still there.  
“I do worry, and I do genuinely just want to see you. I just… needed a little bit of a push to see that.”  
“Literally…” Tim muttered, earning himself a whack on the back of the head from Dick.  
“Whatever the reason, Dick, it’s good to see you.” Bruce squeezed his eldest sons shoulder as they stepped apart. “Do you know how long you’ll be staying?”  
“A few days, maybe, we’ll see.” He shrugged, the pit in his stomach easing off a little bit more with each member of his family that he saw. He yawned, setting off a chain reaction in the others. “Ask me again in the morning.”  
“And after coffee,” Tim said.


	2. Hey Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wake up calls and wearing your own merch

*Bzzt*  
*Bzzt*  
*Bzzt*  
Crash  
*Bzzt*

“Mmmmpph” Dick groaned as he felt around for his phone, which had fallen to the floor after he’d knocked it with his wrist. Pressing his face into the pillow he grabbed at it and swiped in the direction he half hoped was ‘ignore’ but he still dropped the phone by his ear.  
“Rise and Shine, Sunshine” Jason was awfully chipper.  
“Fffck ff Jay.” Dick grumbled into the pillow.  
“Sorry what?” Laughter came through the line. “I didn’t call you for pillow talk, Dick.”  
“Oh shove off, what do you want?”  
“Someone hasn’t had their morning coffee yet. What’s keeping you from it? It’s like 1 pm dude.”  
“Currently, you.” Dick replied, rolling his head so he could check the time on his phone. “Jeez, it really is 1 pm.” He must not have set an alarm. He didn’t actually remember walking up to his room, now that he thought about it. He must have changed into sweatpants at some point though.  
“Heard you were back in Gotham for a few days.”  
“Mmm.”  
“Chasing a lead?”  
“No.”  
“Helping out Bruce?”  
“I’m sure I’ll get roped into it at some point.” Dick sighed, grabbed the phone, and rolled out of bed, looking for a shirt.  
“No doubt. Then why are you back?”  
“I could say homesickness and I wouldn’t be wrong.”  
“Psh. You never get homesick.”  
“True.” There was silence on the other end of the line. “What? No barbs today, Jaybird?”  
“You sound like a Zombie, Dick, I’ll save the barbs for when you can hit back. Why’re you back in Gotham?”  
“Jeez, you’re persistent.”  
“Glad you finally noticed”  
“I’m worried something’s going to happen.” Silence again. Dick actually checked his phone to make sure that signal hadn’t cut out. “Jay?”  
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.” A huff of breath on the other end of the line. “What do you mean by worry?” His brother's voice was eerily calm, and it was strangely comforting.  
“The same worry that I was stuck with when… when you…” Dick rubbed at his eyes and sat back down on the bed, abandoning the search for his backpack and a shirt. He hadn’t been awake long enough to be finding the right words for this, especially to Jason.  
“When I went awol and the deranged clown got me?” Dick didn’t respond, and a soft curse at the other end was enough for him to know that Jason knew his answer.  
“I’ve ignored it every time, Jay, I can’t… I can’t know that there was a chance that I could have been here, done something, again. You, Bruce, Tim, Babs, Damian, I never…”  
“Shut up, Dick, none of those were your fault.”  
“I know, but I always felt like something was coming, something wrong, just… something. Each time, I don’t know.” He paused. “I literally got kicked off a Titan’s mission because it was bothering me so much.”  
“Hey, I’d trust their judgement more than mine. I’d have told you to walk it off.”  
“Ha. I know.” Another pause.  
“I swear if you’re going to tell me not to do anything stupid tonight I’m going to come down there and knock you out myself.”  
“I wasn’t going to, you’d do it anyway, but thanks for saving me the trouble.”  
“You’re welcome. I’ll see you later.”  
“Later?” Dick’s only answer was the sound of the line ending. “Ass.” He tossed his phone back on the bed and let himself go boneless, sinking back into the bed, before reaching for it and shoving it in his pocket as he stood. “How did I even get up here?” He asked himself again, opening the door and ignoring how cold the floors were. The manor was quiet, so it was unlikely the others were still home. School, work, errands, something. 

Quietly, he was glad, and he let himself just wander the manor for a little while, walking the familiar halls and sliding down the polished bannisters.  
“You know, Master Dick, one day you’ll slip and break your wrist doing that.” Dick stumbled a step as he landed after launching himself over the bannister into the lobby.  
“Alfred!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air and crossing the floor to the older gentleman and embracing him.  
“It is good to see you, sir.”  
“Good to see you too. Where is everyone? And why is it freezing in here?” Dick rubbed his hands over his arms, goosebumps covering his shoulders. “I couldn’t find my bag. I don’t even remember going up to the room this morning either.” He responded, answering the question in the pointedly raised eyebrow Alfred was giving him.  
“Probably in the cave still. Master Bruce carried you up apparently, you fell asleep leaning against the railings while he and Master Tim went over a case. Almost crushed young Damian if the story is right.”  
“Huh.”  
“I believe there are photos too, sir. Coffee?” Alfred was already turning away before Dick had even registered what he’d said.  
“Sure. Sure. I’m gonna steal a throw from the sitting room couch first though. Coffee fuels my soul but can’t warm the whole of me.”  
“Violent mood, Gray.” Tim’s voice came from the landing above only a second before something soft collided with Dick’s head. “Put a shirt on and stop showing off.” Dick pulled the bright red hoodie over his head and watched Tim come down the stairs, barely looking up from his phone as he leant on the bannister and swung himself over without using his hands for balance.  
“Jeez, Tim, where you learn to do that?” Dick asked, lightly dropping his arm over Tim’s shoulders as they walked into the dining room.  
“Saw it in a video a few weeks ago, wanted to learn how to do it to show you up for once.” Was the response, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he gently nudged Dick in the ribs with his shoulder.  
“Seriously? You are constantly and forever showing me up, Tim.”  
“Yeah yeah.”  
“Is this your hoodie?” Dick asked, grabbing himself a mug and pouring the steaming coffee into it before sliding onto the bench and tucking one foot under his leg.  
“By definition, yes. Since I bought it. But it’s too big and apparently, I need to keep a low profile with the whole secret identity thing.” Dick looked down as Tim poured himself a cup, drank half of it without flinching at the boiling liquid, and refilled his mug. The hoodie had the Red Robin logo stitched into it on the chest. “I did make the argument that literally everyone these days is wearing a Superman or Batman or Robin shirt, or owns one, so why shouldn’t I?”  
“You raise a valid point.” Dick lifted his mug at his brother in a salute, and they clinked their mugs together. “Shouldn’t you be at school?” Tim shook his head.  
“Curriculum day, or something. Using it as an excuse to do stuff all for the day, been working all week on an assignment, and then Wayne Tech stuff, and then the case that we wrapped up last night.”  
“You need a week off, bud, not just a day.”  
“Don’t stress your pretty little head about it, I’m not going out tonight. As soon as you turned up and then promptly passed out on us everyone decided that a night or two off would be good, so nice timing.”  
“I do seem to have a knack for it.” Tim raised his mug to his lips but yawned deeply before he could take another sip, causing Dick to yawn in answer, and they were both greeted by Bruce yawning as he walked through the doorway.  
“Afternoon.” He said, nodding to both of them and rubbing a hand over his eyes. “Dick, foot off the bench.” Without moving or spilling a drop of his coffee Dick shift and let his feet dangle above the floor.  
“You’re back early.” Tim remarked.  
“Hm.” Bruce grabbed a mug for himself and poured some coffee before he responded properly. “They didn’t need me for any afternoon meetings, so I clocked out early. Wanted to spend some time with you boys.” He said, watching them over the rim of the mug. The pair of them looked at him, then at each other, not quite believing what they were hearing.  
“You’re actually serious about taking a couple of nights off?” Dick was the first to break the silence. Bruce tipped the mug at him.  
“Sure. GCPD can handle things on their own for once, and Kate is back in town, and Luke and Duke were talking about testing some kind of new tech, Tim, no.” Bruce interrupted Tim’s question before he’d even thought it. “Why don’t we get Steph and Barbara over here and we have a movie night? Cass is coming over, and I’m guessing Jason is making his way over if you two talked this morning.”  
“Nothing gets by you, does it?” Dick asked. “Don’t answer, that was rhetorical. You buying the popcorn then?”  
“Why not. I don’t think I’ve helped Alfred with the shopping in years, it might be nice.” Tim coughed into his coffee and Dick struggled to keep from smiling. “You two pick the movie. No horror or action, we get enough of that on patrol.” Bruce rolled his eyes at them and left his mug on the counter and walked out. Dick slipped off the counter and went to put both his and Bruce’s mugs in the dishwasher, and then hovered awkwardly for a moment before giving Tim a hug. Tim didn’t hesitate to hug him back, coffee mug still in hand, and Dick rested his chin on his younger brothers hair and sighed. They stayed like that for a moment.  
“I missed you, Tim,” Dick said, his voice soft.  
“Missed you too Dick.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies if there are any typos (and if the formatting is weird), I haven't done a thorough edit of this chapter and I wanted to post it before I forgot for another four days. Hope you're enjoying it so far!


	3. Familiar Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bat-boys pick a movie and a familiar face drops by.

“Well, okay, you know that I would usually be up for dragon riders and sword fighting but maybe something else tonight? How about that one!” Dick suggested, his legs curled under him as he and Tim flipped through stacks of DVDs.  
“What are you two doing?” Damian’s voice came from the doorway, startling the pair of them.   
“Damian! Come here, we’re having a movie night tonight and we’re trying to pick what to watch. No horror and not a lot of action, by Bruce’s orders.” Dick smiled brightly at the teenager, still in his school uniform.   
“Tt. Surely there are better things to be doing.” He said, before turning around and disappearing down the hallway. Dick sighed and turned back to the pile.   
“Whatever, he wouldn’t know Star Wars from Star Trek anyway. Hey, what about we watch the newest one? It’s got some fantastic scenes.” Tim was already halfway to another cabinet with the science fiction movies before he got a response.   
“Too alien invasion-y for me right now.” Tim rolled his eyes but kept looking through the shelves anyway. “How about a musical?”   
“I veto ‘The Greatest Showman’ right now.”   
“But it’s such a good movie!”   
“You’ve made me watch it with you at least a hundred times. We can watch something else.”   
“Les Mis?”  
“Really?”  
“Mamma Mia?”  
“Dick, you are literally the only person in this family who likes Mamma Mia.”   
“That is a lie.”  
“Is it?” A pause.   
“Fine, 10 Things I Hate About You?” 

“Are we making a list about Drake?” Damian vaulted himself over Dick and landed in a crouch beside him, neatly avoiding the pile of DVDs in front of him.   
“How the fuck did you get changed and back here so fast?” Tim barely looked up for more than a second when Damian spoke, but it was enough to notice that change of clothes.   
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Damian shot back, making a swipe for a DVD case in a stack in front of Dick.   
“I’m vetoing ’10 Things I Hate About You’” Jason’s voice came from the doorway, interrupting Tim and Damian before they could continue. “There’s something about that guy that I don’t like. Something about his face bothers me.” The three of them looked over, and Jason was leaning against the door. Scuffed jeans, leather jacket, hair a mess presumably from the motorcycle helmet under his arm.   
“Jay! You made it.” Dick threw his hands up in the air but didn’t get up. Instead, he swiped the DVD from Damian’s hands and tossed it onto a nearby couch. “No Shakespeare retellings it is then.”   
“So we have no musicals, no horror, no action, no sci-fi - what else is there?” Tim asked, leaning back against the wall and reading the back of a DVD case before placing it back on the shelf.   
“Romcoms, Disney, and Adam Sandler films,” Jason replied, putting the motorcycle helmet down on the floor and crouching on the other side of Dick, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady himself.  
“How about the Princess Diaries?” Dick said, “it’s fun, cute, not overly romantic, and it has Julia Andrews.”   
“Hell yeah, I’m always up for a Julie Andrews movie” Jason pulled the case out of the pile in front of him, sending the ones above it toppling over and scattering over the floor.   
“Tim? Damian? You up for it?”   
“Mia Thermopolis has my undying fidelity,” Tim replied, “so yes.”   
“I’ve never seen it,” Damian said.  
“You’ll love it, trust me.” Dick grinned at him. “I wonder if Bruce and Alfred are back yet.”   
“I didn’t see either of them when I came in,” Damian said, standing up and walking over so that he was standing behind Dick and Jason and leaning on Dicks' head so that he could read the description on the DVD case that Jason was holding.   
“They weren’t here when I got here either, the car wasn’t in the garage,” Jason said, holding the DVD up for Damian as Dick swatted at their younger brother. “But there was a detour off the main road to get here, nasty crash it looked like, maybe they’re just running late.” Dick frowned.   
“They’ve been out for over three hours, it really doesn’t take that long to go and get popcorn.” He said, the pit in his stomach gnawing at him again.   
“They probably stopped out for a bite to eat,” Jason replied, pushing on Dicks' shoulder and standing up and going to sit on one of the couches.   
“Jay where did you say the crash was?” Tim asked, tapping away on his phone, the DVD’s discarded next to him in a messy pile.   
“Couple of miles down the road from here? Had to go the back way. I didn’t see anything.” He mentioned a couple of street names and Tim kept tapping away on his phone.   
“Whatcha thinking Tim?” Dick asked after a moment, bringing a knee up to his chest as Damian leaned onto his back. Tim was quiet for a couple of seconds.   
“I don’t know, looks big though - happened about a couple of hours ago. Several GCPD cars on the scene and a few ambulances, but they’re clearing it now. No names, everyone involved is injured, but it doesn’t go into detail.” Tim said and clicked his phone off.  
“You don’t think it could be…?” Dick left the question open, tapping his fingers against his leg. No one answered, but he knew they would all be thinking about it until Bruce and Alfred returned.   
“It’s fine, they’ll be back soon,” Tim said. “And before you ask, I’m not hacking into police scanners, nothing would be on there about it anyway.”  
“I wasn’t going to ask,” Dick replied. “Besides, I know that. I’d have made a pretty lousy cop if I didn’t know that.” Tim looked like he was going to reply when the sound of the doorbell rang through the manor. Dick felt the weight on his chest lift a little bit, but it could have just been Damian pushing off him and standing up.  
“Maybe that is them now.” The younger said, pulling Dick to his feet.   
“Maybe! Let’s go find out.” 

“I’m staying here,” Jason said, thumbing through the pages of a book he’d picked up somewhere. Tim stood, slipping his phone into his back pocket as he followed Dick and Damian out of the room. Dick reached the flight of stairs in the centre of the manor first, and slid down the bannister in seconds, landing lightly on the tiles in the foyer. The windows on either side of the door showed the front garden, washed in a golden sunset light that they usually only saw in Gotham after a lot of rain.   
“Was it raining earlier?” He asked over his shoulder as he reached for the doorknob and unlocked the door, swinging it open. He didn’t hear the reply.   
“Commissioner Gordan.” Dick paused, face to face with Jim Gordan. The face of the man that met his eyes was familiar, and his heart started pounding in his chest.  
“Dick,” Jim started, and then looked down at the hat he usually wore, wringing it in his hands. Dick felt Damian and Tim come up behind him, but he barely noticed them. He was more focused on the expression on the Commissioner's face.   
He knew that face.  
That expression, of sorrow and apprehension, the face of someone bearing news that no one ever wanted to hear. He had worn that expression himself, a few times, on the doorsteps of strangers homes a few times while he worked on the Blüdhaven Police Force. Dick took a step back, his shoulder colliding with Tim, blood pounding in his ears, making them ring.  
“Jim, what’s going on?” Tim asked, hand coming up on Dick’s shoulder, gripping him tightly in case his older brother fell. He could feel Dick’s muscles underneath the Red Robin sweatshirt that he was still wearing, tense, tight, ready to spring. Something was very, very wrong and neither of them was saying anything. The shock of Dick’s reaction to Jim Gordon knocking on their door had thrown him off and Tim couldn’t think of why the commissioner would be here.   
“It was them, Tim.” Dick’s voice was soft, shocked, and Tim barely registered the words. “The accident.”  
“What?” Tim said, his mind still ten steps behind where he needed it to be.   
“A truck collided with the car that Bruce and Alfred were in, about two and a half hours ago. It was a head-on collision, they’ve only just been airlifted to Gotham General now…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I've fallen into the two-week update schedule with this by accident, but the next chapter might be up sooner, but I'm not making any promises as I'm trying to finish up a novel project this month.


	4. In A Heartbeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The news reaches the Wayne Boys

The numbness started right between his eyes. And then his hands, moving slowly up his arms and down through his legs, making his limbs heavy. Dick’s fingers slipped off the doorknob and he could barely feel Tim’s hand on his shoulder anymore. He had to blink, once, twice, before his eyes focused back on Jim Gordan’s face.  
“Tim, Damian, Dick, I… I’m sorry.” Jim Gordan looked up at the three of them, and Tim knew. “There’s been an accident, just down the road. The car the Bruce and Alfred were in was struck by a truck that had veered off the road in the rain. The paramedics are doing what they can, but they’re both in critical condition and need emergency care.”

Tim could hear his heartbeat, loud in his ears. Dick wasn't sure he could feel his heart beating at all.

“Where are they,” Damian asked. His voice was hard, demanding, the edge to it different than usual.  
“They’ve both been airlifted to Gotham General. The driver of the truck…”  
“I don’t care about the driver of the truck, what’s their condition.”  
“Damian. Stop.” Dick interrupted. He put a hand on Damian’s shoulder and could feel him shaking, but he didn’t know if it was just Damian or if it was him as well. “Thank you, Jim.” He didn’t trust himself to say more.  
“I don’t know how they are beyond what I’ve said, they were airlifted over an hour ago.” The older man sighed and rubbed his eyes. “If you boys need anything…” Jim Gordon left his words hanging, and Dick nodded and watched as the Commissioner turned and walked down the steps to his car. Short, shallow breathes were all Dick could manage as he shut the door, and slowly leaned his head against it.  
He thought that he should get up, move, but his body didn’t react. He sighed, rubbed his eyes, and made himself stand up. “Are you okay?” He put a hand on Damian’s shoulder, who was staring at the door still. The contact seemed to jolt him out of the stupor. “We have to go to them,” Damian said, meeting Dick’s eyes with a look no less intense than any other that he usually wore, but this was different. This was a shock, worry, distress. Something Damian rarely showed outwardly that wasn’t disguised in anger and rage. Tim was a couple of steps behind, staring into space looking like he was trying to process what had just happened.

Jason's boots echoed, even on the carpeted stairs. The look in his eyes told Dick that he'd heard everything. 

“I’ll drive.”  
“Jason, you don’t need to…” Dick said as the four of them broke apart and Jason headed for the driveway.  
“Dick, you’re not going to be able to concentrate enough to drive. We don’t need someone else on an emergency table right now. Bruce and I may not always see eye to eye, but he’s still family.” Jason turned on his heel and grabbed a set of keys off the wall as a door slid open, Damian hot on his heels. Dick swore, fists clenched, and he dropped into a crouch and pressed his hands to his face and sighed. His chest felt hollow, empty, the pit in his stomach yawning wide. Anger crushed through his heart, at the other driver, at the rain that never seemed to lift fully, at the fact that the one time, the one time they’re all taking a night off, at the same time…  
“Of all the things…” He whispered, looking through his fingers at Tim, whose arms were wrapped his chest, watching Dick with worried eyes. “Come on, we should go.” Tim nodded and didn’t move. They were both watching each other, trying to work out what the other was feeling.  
“Stop analysing me, Dick.” Tim sighed, stretching out a hand, which Dick grabbed and pulled himself up.  
“You started it.” He replied, but it was half-hearted. Still, Tim’s attempt to make a joke distracted him just enough to not hurl something at a wall. Only their footsteps sounded as they walked into the garage, a car engine already rumbling. They automatically went for the seats in the back of the landrover, knowing that Damian would have claimed the front in their delay.

Dick’s knee didn’t stop bouncing the entire car ride.  
Jason changed the channel four times before growling at it and turning it off, mumbling under his breath for the rest of the trip.  
Damian had his legs tucked under him and was staring, unblinking, at the road, as if he could blame all of this on it alone.  
Tim just watched the trees streak by without really watching them at all.

By the time that they reached the hospital, the sun was starting to set, sending pink and orange and purple rays streaking through the thin clouds over the city. It looked beautiful, but none of them could bring themselves to appreciate it. Dick and Damian leapt out of the car almost before Jason had put it into park, and they were halfway across the carpark before the other two had climbed out of the car.  
“I almost don’t want to go in,” Tim said, shutting the door and leaving his hand on it for a moment, watching the glass on the window fog up around his fingers. “It’s like… if I don’t go in, I can’t find out the bad news. If there’s anything they can tell us right now. But right now, Bruce, Alfred, they’re just in there, getting help. If I go inside that could all change, and I don’t know what I’d do if… if…” He sighed and glanced up at Jason, leather jacket in one hand, keys in the other, and a crease between his eyebrows.  
“Come on, we can’t avoid it forever.” Jason nodded his head towards the building and started to turn, Tim following slowly behind. “I get it though. The stasis. The Schroedinger effect and all that. Nothing good but nothing bad has happened until you know.” Tim nodded. He gripped his upper arms, his chest starting to tremble a bit as if he was cold. He watched Jason as they walked. Jason was hard to read at the best of times, but he was watching, observant, aware as they walked, and Tim noticed he was moving like he was ready to leap into action at any moment. They both took the steps two at a time, walking in the doors and spotting the other two almost immediately. Dick was pacing, waiting for the clerk at the desk to get off the phone.

“We’re waiting to hear something,” Dick said, walking past them, and then turning on his heel and walking right back. There were a few more people in the lobby, and they hadn’t come into the emergency room so it was quiet.  
“Mister Wayne, sir?” The clerk at the desk looked up, twisting the phone slightly so that the mouthpiece was tucked into her neck. All four of them looked up, and she blinked at them.  
“Yes?” Damian was the first to respond, and she blinked at him again, before glancing up at Dick, and then back to Damian.  
“Grayson, sorry. What?” His tone was clipped, stressed, but masked. The clerk might not have picked up on how tense he was, but after years of attending formal events together, Tim could tell that Dick was strung tight. He stopped pacing and put one hand on the ledge above the desk, removed slightly so he wasn’t imposing on her.  
“They’re both in surgery, and we have no details at the moment. They’ve both been in for at least an hour, they’re telling me, but I have no other information for you. However, they will be transferred into two rooms in the eastern wing - the…”  
“Thomas Wayne wing, I know.” Dick finished for her, his voice hushed slightly. “Can we go up there and wait for some news?” He asked, ever so politely, and Jason and Tim could see the clerk fall under the Grayson Charm.  
“Of course, they’ll tell you which rooms when you get up there.” He thanked her and pushed off the desk, striding to the elevator and jabbing at the button harder than was necessary. Around them, people were glancing their way, looks of confusion to see the Wayne Boys, but they slipped into the elevator before anyone could say anything.  
“Even without trying, you still manage to catch all the girls eyes,” Jason commented, watching Dick out of the corner of his eye as the door slid shut. Dick swivelled a heartbeat later, eyes alight and growling as he swung at Jason, Tim and Damian pressing themselves against the walls of the elevator instinctively, avoiding the hit they hadn’t expected. Jason twisted, taking the punch in his upper arm and stepping sideways, steadying himself after the force of the punch pushed him off balance. Dick huffed, fists still clenched, but only for a second before the tension in his shoulders, his neck, and his back dissipated.  
“I’m sorry.”  
“Don’t be, don’t. I’d rather you hit me when I’m expecting it than break something later on.” Jason said. None of them said anything more, Tim and Damian relaxed slightly, and though Dick was still anxious, he wasn’t as tense. He leaned up against Jason, glad for the rock-solid, muscle packed body beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This... this was a hard chapter for me to write. I didn't realise I was avoiding it until tonight, so that's why it's taken a little bit longer to post this time, but this might also mean another update in the coming days instead of in two weeks. This is something more personal than I realised it was going to be when I started writing it?! But I do want to continue this and see it through.
> 
> One thing I really wanted to do in this chapter was to explore Dick's explosive anger - Jason might be dubbed the angry Robin, but Dick has a temper, and I wanted to write something in line with his reaction to Jason's death (which when I read my reaction was "ow my heart") - and both Tim and Jason's reactions.


	5. Ticking Clocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waiting is agony for someone who can't sit still.

Hours passed with no news.

Unable to sit still, and with his phone buzzing continuously every fifteen minutes with calls before Damian lifted it from his pocket and nearly threw it at his head, Dick went up onto the roof and answered the one currently ringing.

“No, no I don’t want everyone to know. Clark, Clark listen, I can’t… I don’t know what the hell is happening, they won’t tell us anything at all and… okay. Alright. See you in a little while.” Dick shoved his phone in his back pocket and sighed, ignoring the other missed calls.

“Superman is on his way?” Damian said, stepping out of the shadows of the door leading onto the roof as Dick said down hard on one of the vents and sighed.

“Yeah, he is.”

“Did you answer any of the other calls, or just his?” Dick watched the thirteen-year-old as he crossed the roof and sat down next to him.

“Just how long were you listening to me up here?”

Damian huffed a breath. “Long enough.” Dick nudged him with his shoulder. “Alright, I followed you up here. That room was stifling and the nurses kept asking if I wanted a Jello cup. Those things make my teeth ache.” He scrunched his nose in disdain, but they both knew he was just as worried about Bruce and Alfred as everyone else.

“I only answered Clark’s call. He said Barry called him because Wally was freaking out and couldn’t get onto me, and Barry couldn’t get onto Bruce, and they both knew that either we would answer Clark’s call or Clark would find out what happened.”

“Two speedsters - one of them a forensic scientist - couldn’t get a hold of you and didn’t think to come here?” Damian said, incredulously.

“For a couple of smart guys, they miss the obvious sometimes.” Looking down at his hands, Dick ran a thumb over a callous on his palm. “I wouldn’t even know what to say.”

“For a smart guy, you really are dense sometimes,” Damian muttered, and Dick shoved him slightly.

“Rough, buddy, rough.” A beat of silence between them. “How about you? What’s going on in that head of yours.” He didn’t know if he expected an answer or not, but Damian stood, picked up a handful of the pebbles, weighing them in his hand, and started to throw.

“It makes” _throw_ “no sense” _throw_ “at all.” _Throw._

“Bad things happen sometimes, they don’t always have to make sense.”

“Bad guys happen to us all the time, and we still make sense of them.” Damian pulled his arm back again, then dropped it, letting the stones fall the roof as he swung himself around and threw his arms in the air before dropping into a crouching and hugging his knees, curling into himself.

It was dark out, almost 3 am, but none of them were sleeping. None of them could, or would be bothered to try. Their nightly habits wouldn’t break so easily. In the glow of the city lights, Dick watched his brother, his partner, hearing the unspoken question between them.

_“What would we do without them?”_

Dick didn’t have time to think of an answer before the wind picked up and knocked Damian clean over. Except he didn’t fall. He was lifted into the air and onto his feet by a small red and blue blur. Dick leapt to his feet but didn’t move any further as he felt a familiar shape land lightly next to him.

“Hey Blue.” He said softly, watching in confusion as Jon Kent set Damian down carefully, before hovering slightly away, a worried expression on his face. Neither Superman nor Dick moved, but they were ready to jump in and pull the two of them away if the situation called for it. Instead, Damian grabbed onto Jon’s shirt and pulled him out of the air and into a hug. It took him a second of stiffness, but Jon relaxed and hugged his friend back. Clark settled down onto the ledge next to Dick, and he shuffled over and leaned into the familiar body. Quietly, Dick was glad that he hadn’t asked how he was feeling, he wasn’t sure he would be able to answer honestly.

“Is Kon coming?” He asked instead, thinking of Tim downstairs, still waiting for news with Jason. He wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good idea to have left the two of them alone when all of them were as stressed and as anxious as they currently were, but he had to trust them, that they wouldn’t lash out as he had.

“He’ll be here in a moment, he’s coming from New York, instead of Metropolis, so it’ll take him a minute.”

“Tim will be glad to see him.” They watched the two boys let go of each other, and not even ten seconds later Conner Kent landed in a three-point landing right next to them. He waved a Dick, who raised a hand without raising his head from Clark’s shoulder, and said something to the boys. Damian hesitated before nodding, glancing over at Dick before making up his own mind and leading the two Superboys over to the door. All three of them disappeared, light from the stairwell spilling out onto the roof before it banged shut behind them.

“You’re shaking,” Clark said, looking forward at the door.

“Am I? I hadn’t noticed.” Dick replied, putting a hand on his forearm and feeling the goosebumps first, the tremors second. They seemed to spread once he noticed them, his arms, his thighs, his chest. “I’m not scared, Bruce has been through worse, Alfred too, I bet, though he would never admit it.”

“I know you aren’t scared, Dick, hardly anything scares you.” Clark looked over at him then, and he was about to protest, but he didn’t. “You’re anxious. Worried, this is something you can’t fix.”

“See now that, that scares me.” He cut in. “ I can’t do a damn thing to help and it terrifies me.”

“You are helping, Dick, by being here.” Clark’s voice was reasonable, but Dick couldn’t help but scoff, and he stood, kicking a stone beneath his shoe to the other side of the roof.

“Am I? All I’ve done since we found out was the pace and make everyone else worry, I punched Jason because I was angry for no reason, and… I feel like a child, no one will tell us anything and…”

“Dick.” Clark had to repeat himself three times before Dick stopped. “Sit down. No, actually, don’t. Look, you have every right to feel like this, you do, but they aren’t telling you anything because they don’t know themselves. Well, they didn’t.”

“How do you… ah.” Dick tapped his ear and raised an eyebrow, and his answer was a nod. Another second and Dick properly processed what Clark had said. “Wait, you mean?”

“I’ll meet you down there.” Dick was already throwing open the door to the stairwell and was vaulting over the handrails before he even heard the answer. He landed lightly in a crouch across two stairs, before sprinting the rest of the way, leaping down whole sets of ten stairs at a time. His heart was pounding by the time he reached the right floor, only in part because of the exercise. Itching to break out into a sprint, he made himself walk as casually as he could through the ward until he spotted his brothers and the Kent boys in one of the waiting rooms set up for patients families. A doctor was with them. Tim met his eyes first and beckoned for him to join them.

“Ah, Mr Grayson, you’ve arrived just in time.”

“Are they okay? What’s happened? Did something go wrong?”

“One thing at a time, son.” The lifted his hands slightly as if that would stop the torrent of questions he was bursting to ask. “Both Mr Wayne and Mr Pennyworth are out of the theatre, and our recovery room for the moment. They were both incredibly lucky it wasn’t a side-on collision, and that the truck that collided with them only really clipped the front of the car. Their injuries were severe, and without the quick response of the EMTs, they might have been fatal. They got lucky. We will be able to bring Mr Pennyworth up to his room in about an hour or so…” He looked down at the clipboard in his hand, pausing mid-sentence. Dick slipped behind Tim and rested his chin on his head, snaking his arms over Tim’s shoulders. He could almost feel Tim rolling his eyes, but he reached up and held onto Dick’s forearms, relief rolling off both of them.

“And Bruce?” Tim asked. As relieved as they were to hear about Alfred, they were just as anxious to hear about Bruce. Batman. The man who kept facing death, every single night.

“Mr Wayne was more complex than Mr Pennyworth, he had several broken ribs and a punctured lung and several other internal abrasions that required a more intense operation, we’ll need to keep him in our Critical Care Unit for the next couple of days, but unless anything else happens, he should be out of there by the end of the week, and they should both be able to return home sometime next week.” The doctor looked up at them as Tim leaned into Dick’s chest in relief as Dick huffed out a sigh of relief, the tension in his chest that he hadn’t realised he’d been holding so tight releasing in seconds. Damian leapt at Jon, nearly knocking the other boy over as he did, unable to keep still in his relief. Jason leaned into Dick, not saying anything, but lines of worry and the frown that had only deepened the longer they had waited eased almost completely. Conner was leaning against the edge of the table, half a smile on his face as he watched the worry slid off them in droves.

“Good news, then, I take it?” Clark stepped through the door, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and a half-zipped hooded sweatshirt, his southern Kansas accent tinged with just enough worry to be believable.

“Very good news,” Tim said, his voice rumbling through Dick’s skull before he shoved out from underneath him and went to stand beside Conner.

“They aren’t out of the woods yet, but we expect they’ll make a full recovery.” The doctor said, before taking his leave of the room and leaving them be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, they're okay! Mostly. 
> 
> You really didn't think I'd permanently hurt the batboys and co, did you?   
> There'll probably be a few more chapters in this, I have a few things I want to write out before I'm finished with this story


	6. All You Can Do Is Wait

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are anxious as they wait for news

“You’re like a puppy,” Jason said, leaning his head over the back of one of the armchairs and watching Dick wander around the room, bouncing on his toes. He didn’t know what was worse, Dick when they had news, or Dick after they had gotten news and waiting for more. The only response he got was a balled-up piece of paper to the shoulder.

“I wonder what’s taking so long, I might…”

“Dick, no.” Tim interrupted before Dick could finish his sentence. “They’ll tell us when we’re able to go and see them.” Dick rubbed a hand over his eyes.

“You’re right.” He climbed over the back of a chair and slid down into a sitting position next to Jason.

“You always were the worst at sitting still, Alfred used to thank me for not wearing holes in the carpet like you did all the god damn time,” Jason said, leaning his head against his fist and resting his arm along the back of the chair so he could see the others. Clark had taken Jon home about an hour after they’d arrived, but Kon stayed. He was leaning against Tim’s shoulder and watching hi type away on his laptop. Damian was trying to stay awake, but after Jon had started yawning the youngest Robin hadn’t been able to stop himself, and was slouching slightly in his own armchair, chin dropping down to his chest every couple of minutes before he woke himself up again.

“Don’t glare a hole in the wall, Dami, we’d have to pay for it,” Dick said, a playful note in his weary voice. Damian just turned his stare on him and sighed.

“I’m usually better at staying awake.” He said softly.

“It’s been a long day. Usually, you’re swinging from the rooftops, not sitting still for hours on end anxious about something you can’t hit or do anything to.” Tim said, not looking up from the screen immediately.

“What about you then, huh? You don’t even seem phased by any of this. Do you feel anything?” Damian’s voice was icy, and even Jason couldn’t stop himself from flinching.

“Damian!” Dick told him off, but Tim waved a hand.

“I’m worried sick. I’m honestly sick to my stomach and I don’t think I’d be able to sleep even if I tried and I haven’t even touched a cup of coffee but I still feel extremely wired. I don’t…” He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I don’t show my anxieties or worry outwardly, it's a force of habit, too many people watching me for way too long and it’s become a defence mechanism.”

“Dark and gritty,” Kon said softly, but everyone heard. Tim laughed.

“Yeah. Dark and gritty.” His smile only lasted a second before it dropped. There were shadows under his eyes, and the crease in between his brow looked as if it had always been there. “I’m worried sick, Damian, but they’re going to be okay. They have to be okay.”

There was a knock at the door.

“Excuse me?” A nurse poked his head through the door, and all of them looked up. “Mr Pennyworth has been transferred to his room,” the nurse almost vanished back through the door as all of them stood up in a hurry, “if a couple of you would like to come with me, I can take you to him?” Damian was already pushing past.

“Go with him, Jay.” Dick nodded his head at the door, watching Damian disappear through the window.

“Are you sure?” Dick nodded, and Jason followed. The nurse lingered for a moment.

“Mr Wayne is being transferred to the ICU unit currently, I would have mentioned it before but… well.” He looked over his shoulder and down the corridor.

“He can be a little enthusiastic,” Tim replied as he stood. His back audibly cracked and both him and Kon winced.

“I trust that you know where to go?” The nurse asked and left as they reassured him that they did.

“I should go. Call me if you need anything?” Kon turned to Tim, and Tim nodded and hugged him tight, muscles straining. When they left the room, they walked in opposite directions, following the signs towards their respective destinations. Tim wrapped an arm around Dick and put his head on his shoulder, a little awkwardly as they walked. It caught Dick off guard for a moment before he slipped his arm over his brother's shoulder and pulled him tight. They decided to take the elevators, and as the doors shut an alert sounded behind them, but neither of them paid any attention to it.

“How’re you holding up, Timbers? It was pretty intense back there.”

“I don’t know, honestly. I was working on something for the Titans to distract myself. I knew if I didn’t have something to do I would…”

“You’d make yourself feel worse about not being able to do anything?” Tim raised his head and loosened his grip as the doors slid open to reveal the hallway to the ICU unit.

“Exactly.” They walked out, and almost immediately stepped back into the elevator as two people in scrubs rushed past them. Glancing at each other, they followed quickly before they were stopped by a clerk at the entrance to the ward.

“I’m sorry, you need clearance to enter the unit.” She said, asking after their names. Her eyes widened slightly when they gave them and she hesitated, watching the nurse's dart past. “They’ve called an alert for a patient, I don’t know who, and I don’t know why. I just need you to sit tight for a moment while it gets attended to, and then I’ll do what I can to find out where Mr Wayne is, okay?”

“Of course, thank you,” Tim said, before stepping away. He drummed his fingers against the strap of his bag as he watched Dick start pacing again, dodging a couple more nurses. A few of them stopped and did a double-take at the both of them, before continuing on.

“You don’t think it’s him, do you?” He asked, running a hand through his already mussed hair.

“Could be, might not. We just have to wait.”

“I hate not knowing,” Dick leant against the wall next to Tim.

“Have you called Wally back yet?” Tim asked a moment later, and Dick swore under his breath as he pulled his phone out.

“I should call Roy too, ask him to come over when he can. Jason might get a kick out of seeing him again.”

“Get Jay to do it, you call Wally.” Tim already had his phone in his hand and was typing a message to Jason. Dick let the phone ring for a moment but hung up before he had to leave a voice message, and was about to send a text when Wally appeared next to him, bumping shoulders with him a little as he skidded on the linoleum. Neither of them said anything but embraced each other in a crushing hug that was only interrupted by Tim’s cough. The pair of them turned to look at him, and Tim nodded at the same clerk that they had just been talking to before.

“You can follow me, I’ll take you to his room,” she noticed Wally’s arrival and was about to question it when Dick shook his head.

“He’s as good as family, he’s coming too.” She didn’t argue, and swiped them through into the ward and let a nurse lead them through. Most of the rooms were open, and not that much different to any other hospital ward they had visited, just with more equipment. Tim found himself craning his neck, trying to see into the rooms and spot Bruce.

“He’s just in there.” The nurse stood aside and let them enter a room. “I’ll leave you be for the moment, let him rest, he’ll wake when he’s ready.” He nodded at them, and before he could leave Dick stopped him.

“The code, before, was everything alright?” He asked.

“Nothing too serious, and nothing we couldn’t handle. The slightest thing sets off codes in here, but the patient is okay.” Dick nodded and let him go before he turned and looked around the curtain. Tim was already leaning against the end of the bed, looking over the chart.

“He’s looked worse?” Tim said, almost jokingly, and Dick huffed a breath that was almost a laugh.

“He definitely has.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update friends! It's been a strange couple of weeks for me, and then when I started working on this chapter issue #77 happened and took a couple of days to actually hit emotionally - so THAT was interesting.  
> I think I've still got a few chapters of this to go, and we're definitely out of the woods (well, for the most part)

**Author's Note:**

> I... had this prompt on my mind ever since I read it, and had the idea for it. This is a sappy chapter, they're together, happy, for now. And oh, it hurts already


End file.
